N.J. lawmakers pledge to end Rutgers University space-food program

TRENTON -- The mission of E3CO, a small, non-profit group that received $130,000 in annual state funding to teach kids about growing food in space, was abruptly aborted today, following revelations that much of the money was earmarked for the salary of a woman who is dead.

"We're going to take this one and send it to the moon, where it belongs," declared Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who promised that E3CO's funding was being pulled. "It's over. It's buried. It's dead. Should never have existed."

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerState Senator Richard Codey in a July 1, 2008 file photo.

Gov. Jon Corzine agreed, saying the funding would be immediately cut.

"I don't really understand why New Jersey is in the business of space program funding," said the governor. "I can assure you it will not be either funded in 2009 or funded in 2010."

E3CO's funding problems were first reported in today's Star-Ledger. The paper found the Legislative approved hundreds of thousands of dollars to E3CO since 2003 -- much of it going to pay two people -- one with some political connections and the other a woman who has been dead for two years. Those tax records show the money covered the salaries of Patricia Rowe, the group's executive director, who died in 2007, and to Sara Crane, the ex-wife of Joseph Salema, the one-time chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio.

Crane was divorced last year from Salema. She could not be reached today for comment.

The money came through a special state appropriation entered in the Rutgers budget each year. Rutgers did not control or administer the program -- but was simply the conduit for the funds from the legislature. More than $400,000 in state funding has gone to the group by way of the university's budget since 2003.

Robert Goodman, executive dean of the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences yesterday said the university had not released funding to the program this current fiscal year because the school could not determine exactly what the non-profit had been doing with state funds the past two years.

"Our attempts to verify activity by the program have been unsuccessful," he said

After Rowe's death, the university had been unable to get receipts or other documents showing how-- or if -- the money was being spent.

"We are encouraged to hear that we will no longer be responsible for administering this appropriation," said Goodman.

Sen. Marcia A. Karrow (R-Hunterdon), who first raised questions about the grant more than a week ago during a budget committee hearing in Trenton, said the elimination of the funding does not answer how the money was put in the budget in the first place.

"They're going to eliminate the funding, but when is the AG (attorney general) going to investigate why this has been in the budget at all?" she asked. "Perhaps we deserve a refund."

She said the controversy over the funding shows why the state grants system needs to be reformed, so that applications for state funding are filed before money is awarded, and that the funding is then audited after the fact to document how it was spent. She added that the governor could have vetoed the spending at any time over the last four years, but did not.

Goodman said E3CO had first gotten started with a NASA educational grant to teach school children about living in space and how to grow food for long-term missions aboard the International Space Station and to Mars. Kids would learn how to grow plants like tomatoes without soil. At the time, Rowe was put on the Rutgers payroll, and paid through the NASA grant, officials said. After the federal grant came to an end, the state agreed to fund the South Jersey-based non-profit group.

The state money was first appropriated for E3CO in 2003, according to budget records, when former state Sen. Wayne Bryant co-chaired the powerful Budget and Appropriations Committee. Campaign finance records show Rowe and Crane contributed money to the re-election campaign of Bryant, who was convicted last year on federal corruption charges.

After Rutgers put a freeze on disbursements to the group, the legislature still kept the funding in place.

Codey, in an interview with WCBS radio, said the money had been buried in the Rutgers budget.